Animate Projects commissions artists to make work that explores the relationship between contemporary art and animation, for broadcast, gallery, cinema and online exhibition.
Established in 1990, Animate has commissioned over 90 innovative and challenging films by artists. It is the longest running broadcast-linked project ever supported by Arts Council England, and the most consistent commitment ever made by Channel 4 to the independent production of experimental and artists' work. Selected through an open call for proposals, the commissions are broadcast by Channel 4 and have gained critical and popular success at international festivals and achieved television sales around the world.
Animate Projects is building on and extending the existing commissioning programme, developing new partnerships and collaborations. We aim to realise the potential of the Animate Archive; exploit the opportunities of digital distribution; develop participatory projects and foster critical debate.
Animate Projects is funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and by Channel 4. Visit us at animateprojects.org
Animate new commissions
Animate Projects is proud to announce seven new commissions, which explore a variety of themes, including ecology, mental health and creativity, and the forgotten military history of a bleak East Anglia landscape. Techniques include time-lapse film, hand drawn rotoscope, and animated ceramic hybrid characters. Also, for the first time, we are commissioning two online commissions.
The commissioned artists’ backgrounds range from the visual arts, experimental film, graphic design, animation, and ceramics.
To see the films shown on Channel 4 in December 2007, plus the artists' interviews, check out AnimateTV 2007.
End of the Street, Andy Martin. End of the Street takes the original 19th Century Beaufort Wind Force scale and conjures a response. Incrementally turning up the strangeness.
Flat Earth, Thomson and Craighead. Flat Earth weaves material found online, taking us on an extraordinary seven-minute journey around the world as seen through the eyes of web-bloggers.
Francis, Let Me Feel Your Finger First. An account of the creation of a 9-year old ‘disturbed’ animated character. As the draughtsman’s hand goes to work and Francis attains animated consciousness, his behaviour is observed and assessed by a child psychologist.
Magnetic Movie, Semiconductor. Natural magnetic fields are revealed as chaotic ever-changing geometries as scientists from NASA’s space sciences laboratory excitedly describe their discoveries.
The Life Size Zoetrope, Mark Simon Hewis. The Life Size Zoetrope is the morose life story of one man, told via a one-take live action shot of a human zoetrope containing the film.
Tongue of the Hidden, David Alexander Anderson. The poet Hafez, ‘The Teller of Secrets’, used the
language of human love and metaphor to describe his
intoxication with the mysteries of the Universe.
Animate Products
Currently on offer we have limited edition t-shirts, badges, books and DVDs. There are exclusive t-shirt designs by artists AL and AL and Run Wrake; the animate! book, with essays, artists' interviews and a DVD of 10 films; and The Animators catalogue, published to coincide with the exhibition curated by Angela Kingston.
The Animation Department is on the road. Come and see us at:
Brief Encounters Film Festival Bristol Thursday 22nd & Friday 23rd November.
Gillian Lacey will be attending the Film School Symposium and John Osborne & Jacqueline Steinmetz will have a stand with display materials to talk about our films, applications and the course.
The Smoking Cabinet A Festival of Early Burlesque and Cabaret Cinema (1895 -1933)
Friday 7th, Saturday 8th, Sunday 9th December, Curzon, Soho Opening night party £10 All other screenings £5.50 Bookings: 0871 7033 988 / www.curzoncinemas.com
The Smoking Cabinet will be composed of rarely screened shorts and full length films celebrating popular entertainment in the belle époque to the Weimar Republic with the aim of building an audience for, and awareness of, cabaret inspired early cinema including the work of Fernard Léger, Man Ray, Percy Smith, Adrian Brunel, Jean Renoir, Georges Méliès as well as featuring turn of the century music hall stars, trick films, early erotica and performing animals.
